Concrete Poetry
   of Modern Love

   Ambivalent   and heartbroken,  I   broke  up  with    Jeff,   my   first   love,  as  he   entered  medical school. We     had   known  each    other since    we
 were  13
  and 14.    Post-split,
 we   kept   in touch. When my   father  died, Jeff     showed
  up. When  my   mother needed   a   cardiologist, he    treated
     her.    Eventually  something  scary
   turned   up  on my own   test. “Bring me the     echo,”  he  said,  referring  to      an  echocardiogram.  I   sat beside  him, watching   a  video   of  my heart   pumping.
 It  seemed  so    fragile
   I had  to   look away.    “Normal  aging,”   he assured  me. My  heart, like our  friendship,  would
  live   on.   —  Cathy Casriel